Fermi All-sky Movie Shows Flaring, Fading Blazars (2009)

Synopsis

This all-sky movie shows counts of gamma rays with energies greater than 300 million electron volts from August 4 to October 30, 2008, detected by Fermi's Large Area Telescope. Brighter colors indicate brighter gamma-ray sources. The circles show the northern (left) and southern galactic sky. Their edges lie along the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Because this is an unusual view of the sky, the movies first overlay the stars and establish the locations of well- known constellations: Ursa Major (which includes the Big Dipper), Boötes, and Virgo in the northern galactic map; Cetus, Aries, and Pegasus in the southern galactic map. Notable gamma-ray sources include the sun (moving through the northern sky), the gamma-ray-only pulsar PSR J1836+5925 -- a member of a new pulsar class discovered by Fermi - and numerous blazars (active galaxies). The blazars 3C 273, AO 0235+164, and PKS 1502+106 are highlighted. Note: Looped Fermi all-sky map in the southern galactic sky. Animator: Jean Ballet (CEA Saclay), Cruz DeWilde (Avant Gravity), Walt Feimer (HTSI). Producer: Stefanie Misztal (UMBC). Scientist: Jean Ballet (CEA Saclay), Elizabeth Hays (NASA/GSFC), Steven Ritz (NASA/GSFC). Writer: Francis Reddy (SPSYS). Platforms/Sensors/Data Sets: Fermi/LAT.

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NASA

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